The Tale of a Very Verbally Awkward Kirin
by theicingandcherryontop
Summary: Keiki, the most socially awkward kirin in all twelve kingdoms put together. Keiki, who is so bad at explanations that he has caused two misunderstandings of national crisis proportions. Keiki, from the day he formed as a fruit on a tree to the day his liege came into her own. A foray into our most favourite inscrutable kirin.
1. Chapter 1

In the twenty-third year of her reign the Queen of Kei, the late Hi-Ou, was struck down by Heaven and in the period of half a year a single branch of the Shashinboku bore one small golden fruit. It hung above the beaming, newly-born feathered nyokai named Haku Kaiko, who tenderly stroked it, murmuring,

"Keiki."

That fruit gradually swelled for nine months until Kaiko, positively glowing with bliss, reached out and gave it a light tug, which detached the fruit cleanly from its stem. Seeing this, the nyosen gathered round, although the fruit would not crack open for another twenty-four hours. During the incubation period the area beneath the branches of the Shashinboku resembled the slumber party of a large group of preteen girls who stayed up far too late drinking Red Bull.

They were so excited they nearly missed the _tap_ from within, followed by a clean _crack_ as the egg-fruit split into perfect halves. The gathered nyosen's hearts melted into gooey mush of at the sight of the bleary eyed, damp kirin foal. He was curled up in a ball with his slender legs tucked in, slightly larger than a full grown cat in the same position. His pale cream back with strewn pure white speckles arched, and he stretched out his thin legs. He lifted his narrow muzzle to face Kaiko, unfolding his triangular ears and blinking open his violet eyes, both large in proportion to his small face.

The nyosen almost swooned out of sheer cuteness overdose as he wobbled upwards, pushing his narrow hind legs up with his forelegs and stumbling a couple of steps. The surge of nyosen rushing forward alarmed the newborn, forcing him to retreat backwards into his nyokai's outstretched arms, tripping over his hind legs in the unlearned motion and falling spread legged on his stubby tail. Seeing this, Teiei scolded the nyosen and assigned each tasks to busy themselves with, which they performed with long, dawdling detours around the Shashinboku. But for the most part Keiki was left in peace.

The nyosen were all eager to care for the baby foal, but Keiki proved to be skittish around large groups of people, so the nyosen tending to him were reduced to a small handful comprised of those who were most senior, those who were most eager, and those who were masters of rock-paper-scissors. He grew slowly stumbling along blithely after Kaiko through the gardens, until after a year had passed his legs had grown strong and his young mind curious.

That's when Keiki began to stray to the edge of Houro Palace, right along the walls, learning the boundaries of his world. There he encountered small youma, gaining shirei without understanding anything more than he wanted to win the staring game with the little fuzzy animal. He soon knew the passages of Mt. Hou by heart, guiding his nyokai through them instead of the reverse, and his curious little mind ever sought to find something new in the well familiar space.

Doors were his greatest enemy. The tall beings that surrounded him had funny little things at the end of their front legs, the ones they used for things other than walking, that could magically open doors and do many things. Many of the things they could be used for he could achieve with his teeth and nudges with his head, but not opening doors. He was sure there were lots of exciting things behind the many doors in the buildings, but he couldn't get at them.

In particular, the tall beings always emerged from one door with a tray laden with good things to eat, and he could smell all the yummy things behind the door. But no one would open it for him, not even the fluffy winged tall being he really liked. He stared morosely at the door, then looked pitifully at the winged being, who smiled and shook her head. She wasn't going to open it. One of the tall being in bright colours passed by, and he gazed at her imploringly.

The bright tall being laughed, "No, Keiki, you can't go in the kitchen."

All Keiki understood from that was "Keiki" and "No". She wasn't going to open the door either. Rats.

The tall being moved off, and the most delicious smell arose from the crack under the door. Mhmm… mint carrot stew. He really, really, _really_ wanted to go in there. He nudged the door with his foreleg, and then awkwardly tried to lift it to the sticky-outy-thingy that when pulled created the miracle of an open door. No matter how he nudged it with his foreleg it didn't turn, and the door stayed shut.

How did the tall beings do it? They had five little thingies at the end of their forelegs that could wrap around the door, five little thingies he didn't have. He really, really wanted them. If he just had the five little thingies he could get into the food room too.

Keiki felt funny for a moment and suddenly the end of his foreleg was a lot more bendy. Bendy enough to wrap around the sticky-outy thingy and, with a lot of fumbling, pull it and open the door. He took a step inwards… and fell flat on his oddly flat face.

The bright tall beings inside the food room looked up from the yummy smelling thing they had their hands in and exclaimed, "He's transformed!"

He tried to scramble up, but his forelegs suddenly seemed much shorter than his hind and they had funny bendy-thingies at the end. He looked down in bewilderment and couldn't see himself anywhere, just tall being legs. He turned his head frantically to try to find his body, and suddenly there it was again. He got up and trotted over to where he smelt the good things, and the bright tall beings made lots of fuss over him, stroking his head and giving him sliced apples.

That was Keiki's first ever time transforming and, though the kitchen nyosen loved to fondly retell it over and over again, he was much too young to remember it.

After that no doors were safe from Keiki (since none of the doors on Mt. Hou had locks), and he gradually found many other uses for his newly discovered ability. By the time he was six he had grown strong enough to hold transformation for days on end, and that's when the nyosen felt it prudent to alert Kei Kingdom they could raise the kirin flag and send over shouzan pilgrims.

Before that Keiki had known that somewhere far away was a place called "Kei" that he would go to when he got big. He was the "Ki" of "Kei", so when he got bigger he would find a person called "Ruler" and then go with "Ruler" to "Kei". But suddenly he was big enough, and there were people coming to see him, maybe even the ruler!

Before Keiki had been a diligent learner who knew many more characters than children twice his age did, but now he frantically expanded his education by poring over difficult books on Kei. He studied things he didn't really understand, and often had to pull aside a nyosen to help him. He learned that almost three hundred years ago there had been a good king called Tatsu-Ou, but then Tatsu-Ou went bad and his Keiki died, and after that two bad queens called Haku-Ou and Hi-Ou followed him after very long interims during which the new Keikis were born and grew up. He was the third Keiki since Tatsu-Ou's Keiki, and the nyosen told him all the Kei people wished he would choose a good, just ruler and guide that ruler well for a long time.

Keiki felt a bit alarmed at this, but he knew that the ruler was a good person chosen by Heaven, so if he worked hard it should be something he was able to do. He poured himself over scrolls detailing the exact duties of the Saiho and examined various accounts of scenarios that had occurred to his predecessors. When the pilgrims arrived his head was spinning and stuffed full of all the government stuff he could cram into it.

He knew the ruler would seem different to him than all other people, but he didn't feel like that towards any of the people there, so the people were quickly disappointed to learn there was not a ruler among them. Keiki found the strange people fascinating to be around, though he wasn't very good at talking with them. The only people he had ever seen were the nyosen, who knew him so well that he hardly ever need actually say anything to them. And if they knew what he wanted without him having to say so, why bother? It just wasn't practical. But Keiki quickly realized the pilgrims were not telepathic, and so he learned that he needed to specifically state something for it to be understood. There were lots of people who came up to him and talked on and on about nothing, but they were generally those trying to curry the kirin's favour, so Keiki didn't feel obliged to reply to them at all. There were also some friendly ones who merely chatted on about their jobs or children conversationally. Keiki found the topic of children fascinating, since he had never seen a child before, but because he didn't say anything and his facial expression didn't convey this the topic was often changed to a more tedious one, until the pilgrim ran out of things to say or got unnerved by his unresponsive silence.

Despite being a most apathetic participator, the pilgrims' chatting taught him they all hoped he would soon choose a ruler. His two immediate predecessors had nearly been thirty when they chose a king, since Haku-Ou had been too poor to go on a shouzan and Hi-Ou had, fearful of the dangers of the Yellow Sea, delayed the voyage. Since Haku-Ou had lasted only sixteen years, and Hi-Ou only twenty-three, this meant the interims had been longer than the actual reigns. Hence why everyone hoped he would choose a ruler early, particularly a king.

Men were almost as strange creatures as children to Keiki, despite himself being male. On Mt. Hou there are only nyosen and his nyokai, no men at all. If asked to describe how men differed from women he would be hard pressed for a definition, but the slight difference fascinated him. The difference was not so large or standard that it meant that a king was preferable to a queen, but as the two previous queens had been quite useless and short-lived Keiki knew everyone was hoping the ruler he chose would be a king. He hoped so too, because all the things he read about the duties of Saiho sounded complicated enough even without the stigma of _kaitatsu_ attached to the ruler at ascension, but it wasn't something he really had power over. The ruler was the ruler, whether it was a king or queen was not something he got to decide. In fact, he had about as much say in the selection as the dice does in whether it rolls a snakes eyes, but the pilgrims all told him they wished for him to quickly choose a good king.

It was a huge burden for a six-year-old to have to shoulder.

The pressure caused Keiki to retreat from the pilgrims and lock himself up in Shiren Palace fervently studying all he could about rulers. Of course each time a new group of pilgrims arrived he politely waited for them to offer incense and examined each person for ouki, but the ruler never came and Keiki had a lot to learn. The nyosen told him he didn't have to be so uptight and it was fine for him to go play or converse with the pilgrims, to which he paid no mind. There was much to learn, and Keiki was desperate to fulfill the hopes of the people he had been born to serve. The most the nyosen were able to convince him to do was spend an afternoon of rest after a tiring morning shirei subduing excursion. Then, in the evening, he would go right back to his scrolls.

The years passed this way and Keiki grew older and much more knowledgeable, so at times he would go to some of the pilgrims to converse. He found them a good source of information, and in this way he learned about the state of Kei and the general international state. This was how he found out that the Tai Taiho had been struck with shitsudou, and nearly a year later when he was walking past the Shashinboku he paused and squinted at it.

The end of one of the branches seemed to be giving off a dilute golden glow, almost like a translucent lamp shade, faintly noticeable in the dimming evening. He pulled a passing nyosen aside and pointed it out, but she didn't see anything. Over the next few days he frequented the Shashinboku in puzzlement, and the glow grow strong enough that he was able to see it in the day.

Teiei, who had been informed of Keiki's strange behavior, approached him. "Is something the matter?"

When Keiki pointed to the tree branch and described what he saw, Teiei clapped her hands together and smiled. "The means a new ranka is sprouting! It should be the Taika, since Tai is currently the only kingdom to our knowledge without a kirin. How exciting, two kirin on Mt. Hou at once! It is most rare, I've only had it happen twice in all my years serving here."

Teiei sighed dreamily. "It is so wonderful to have two kirin growing up together like siblings. Just think Keiki, you're going to be an older brother!"

_Older brother?_ Strictly speaking kirin were not related to one another but, as there were only twelve at any time, there existed a fellowship between them similar to that of family. Keiki, however, had never met another kirin, and hitherto he had been the youngest. In addition, he had yet to meet another child and the concept of 'baby' to him was a distant phenomenon he'd read about.

Keiki detoured to the Shashinboku at least twice a day after that, watching the small bud sprout on the tree until it was a clearly distinguishable tiny golden fruit. The nyosen were completely ecstatic, and they kept coming up to him telling him how wonderful it was and how he would have to be a good role model. Keiki started digging through the archives on Mt. Hou for a treatise written on siblinghood, but he couldn't find the meanest essay to instruct himself. The whole thing made him feel rather disconcerted and unqualified, and he dearly wished some ancient philosopher had been kind enough to do a study on role-modelism and write out concrete instructions on how to go about it.

Terrifying as the idea of being a mentor was, Keiki longed to see what tiny creature appeared from within the delicate golden fruit. He was just detouring past the tree, on his way back from subduing a hinman named Jouyuu, when he caught sight of a female ninyou spring from beneath the roots and bound over beneath the Taika, lovingly cradling it and cooing,

"Taiki."

He stopped a few minutes to observe the nyokai, since he had never seen one other than Kaiko before. The leopard-lizard-woman was fascinating, but he was weary from the battle of wills with Jouyuu and wanted nothing more than to go curl up and sleep for a while. Fighting the wind all the way back to Shiren Palace only made him more exhausted, so he just flopped onto his bed fully clothed and shut his eyes, falling asleep in an instant. Even at that young age, this was something very uncharacteristic for Keiki and clearly showed the extent of his exhaustion. He dreamed peacefully of a smaller version of himself galloping joyfully through the air beside him, until all of a sudden he was rudely jerked awake.

Keiki slammed into the floor and opened his startled eyes in bewilderment, taking in his overturned furniture and the shuddering earth. He raced to the door clarify the situation, and he had only turned the knob when it suddenly blew open and hit him in the face. Retracting a step in pain, he clutched his bleeding nose and looked out dazedly.

The whole sky had turned blood red and gusts of high winds blew tree branches and fragments of palaces through the air like dandelion seeds. The force of wind slamming into him forced Keiki to retreat another step.

_What in the world is going on?_

Mt. Hou had inherently good weather, and storms of this magnitude simply never occurred. The only natural disasters that had ever happened on Mt. Hou were…

_A shoku?_

Keiki broke into a run towards the Shashinboku, doubled over from the effort of fighting his way through the winds. He had only ever read about shoku, from an account of a nyosen named Shoushun who had served on Mt. Hou five hundred years ago, but the description she had given had matched what was happening exactly, and worse, at the time it had carried off the Enka!

Keiki transformed and instantly he was able to spring forward without hindrance, arriving at the Shashinboku in seconds. The leopard nyokai was reaching out her hand desperately, sobbing and screaming,

"Taiki! TAAAIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

Then suddenly the sky was blue and the wind a mere gentle breeze. All was peaceful, but there was no Taika on the Shashinboku.

Keiki didn't remember much after that, partly because he was in bed several days afterwards with blood fever from his smashed up nose, though he remembered being assured by a distressed nyosen that everyone else had been dispatched eastward to Hourai, searching. The kirin of other kingdoms were asked to aid the search, but he was not permitted to join in, being too young. Keiki's hope for Taiki's return dwindled, until it seemed like the time another kirin had been growing on the same Shashinboku he'd been born from was nothing more than a passing dream.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch2:

The shouzan pilgrims were slowly dwindling in numbers, and Keiki knew everyone was disappointed he was taking so long to pick a ruler. But it wasn't his fault. If the ruler didn't go on a shouzan, it couldn't be helped that he hadn't found him or her! Keiki could hear the mutters, the resigned sighs of having _another_ long interim before a ruler was chosen, perhaps until the kirin was almost thirty. Or worse, the kirin dying at thirty without choosing a ruler and leaving the country to wallow in its misery until the next kirin was born.

And so, when he became an adult, Keiki descended Mt. Hou.

Travelling _to_ Kei was easy since all he had to do was fly above the sea of clouds. Travelling _in_ Kei was a whole other story.

Keiki didn't want every single person he met to know he was the kirin, so he had to keep his hair constantly covered. He had never seen so many people in his life, or been anywhere so unfamiliar and large. His greatest relief was that he could clearly sense the ouki coming from the south, so he knew which direction to head, if not which road to take to get there. His journey through Kei showed him just how bad off the country was, and how much work it would take to just get it back on an even keel. The sight of people starving in the streets and the faint scent of blood lingering outside of the official's quarters broke Keiki's compassionate heart.

_Please let the ruler be a strong, honourable, wise person. I don't care if it is a king or queen, just please give Kei someone to heal her._

The ouki took him to the outside of a merchant's booth, in which two young women worked at the front while their mother and father managed the books in the back. The green haired sister greeted him,

"Welcome! Could I interest you in something to buy? A souvenir, perhaps?"

Although the words were customary, her voice lacked the usual assured tone of a merchant seeking to convince their prey of the superior quality of their wares, instead it sounded more like an uncertain plea. The young woman held herself hesitantly; shoulders hunched inwards and one arm clutching the other, as though seeking something firm to hold on to. She bit her lip nervously and glanced in desperation towards her younger sister, who stepped forward boldly and began to rattle off amazing deals and special features like a true professional. The green haired elder sister slipped off gratefully to the back, glad she didn't have to be the one to deal with the stern looking customer.

The ouki was emitting from her.

Keiki couldn't help but feel disappointed; he had spent his whole life anticipating what kind of person the ruler would be, after all. But he knew his duty and so he sidestepped the younger sister raving about the benefits of this particular saucepan and closed the distance to the back in a couple brisk strides. The woman glanced up from where she was flipping through in the account book as he yanked off his head covering, revealing long flowing pale gold tresses, and knelt in supplication at her feet in a formal kowtow.

"I greet Your Majesty bearing the Mandate of Heaven. Henceforth I shall never part from thee, nor disobey thy decrees. My fealty I hereby pledge in covenant to thee."

Without moving his head Keiki glanced up at her. Her mouth hung open in dumbstruck amazement and her eyes were wide with confusion. Enlightenment dawned in her eyes and he could see his words begin to process through her head, her face clearly showing her internal distress. Accept or not accept?

With the countenance of one accepting one's sentence to the gallows, the shy young woman squeaked, "I accept."

Her name, he learned, was Jokaku, not that he ever called her that. No, he always properly addressed her as "Your Majesty". There was nothing majestic about Jokaku; she was a simple kind woman who just wanted to live a simple life and be nice to others, and have others be nice back. She certainly didn't appreciate being forced into a life of angry ministers, elaborate clothing and ceremonies, problems without any solution, and no one being satisfied with anything she ever did. One time, shortly after her ascension, she screamed at Keiki while crying tears of frustration,

"Why did you chose me! I'm not suited to be royalty!"

Keiki felt pity for her, but there was nothing he could do. He would never have picked her as the queen if he had been Tentei, but she was the queen and there was nothing for it but to try to shape her into one as much as he could and cover all the things she wasn't sufficient at. Those things, he learned, were extensive.

Keiki felt his own ball of frustration growing in the pit of his stomach: the queen wasn't doing anything, the ministers looked down on her and squabbled among themselves, and the people were left to suffer. He was forced to single-handedly try to run the government, something never meant to be done. His efforts produced minimal effect, and the situation of Kei continued to deteriorate. Just as he was sighing deeply, an art life at Kinpa Palace had honed in him, a message bird arrived at the window.

Its message was stamped with the seal of Mt. Hou, and it summoned him to Houro Palace to tutor the recently recovered Taiki. Keiki was beginning to suspect the world at large was all in on some conspiracy to make his life as difficult as possible.

Summons from Gyokuyou were rare and not easily ignored, so Keiki had no choice but to give his queen stern, _stern_ lectures on not neglecting government and head off to the land of his childhood. He feared his lectures would not be heeded.

Gyokuyou was waiting for him at the gate and escorted him to a veranda at Rosen Palace, which was full of the golden spirit of kirin. Keiki got the shock of his life when the little child that ran into the room had a mane not of gold hair, but of black. Yet he emitted a very strong aura of kirin, so there was no mistaking him. This was Taiki, the same child who had been snatched away ten years ago. Keiki had a hard time connecting the black haired boy in front of him to the golden fruit hanging on the tree. Of course he knew they were the same, but somewhere he just felt a sense of disbelief.

Being back on Mt. Hou also gave him a strange feeling. He had bid farewell to it two years previous and never expected to return, save for the brief visit when the queen formally accepted the Mandate of Heaven. That time he had only been there for a few hours, but now he would be moving in again as a guest. Right now the master of Mt. Hou was Taiki, and he was only a visiting Saiho, in the place where he had spent all but the last two years of his life. It was a strange feeling.

A nyosen brought him tea and gave him a Disapproving Look, like one she had once given him when he spilt hot soup all over her and forgot to apologize. "Because you haven't said anything, Taiki doesn't know what to do."

Keiki glanced at Taiki, sitting timidly across from him looking uncertain about whether he should start chatting or remain silent. Keiki could already sense this wasn't going to go well.

In his own opinion the conversation had gone over unexpectedly well. They'd covered all the things that needed to be said, Taiki didn't have a temper tantrum like Jokaku would have, and they diplomatically concluded it once all the necessary points had been covered. The nyosen, however, clearly felt otherwise.

"Keiki! Taiki's so little, how could you bully him!"

Keiki was taken aback. All he'd done was answer Taiki's questions, how did that constitute bullying him!?

But the nyosen reported it to Gyokuyou, who drew him aside for a long lecture. Keiki didn't really understand much of what she was talking about, but he was nonetheless shooed out to go find Taiki and make up with him. Keiki felt very young and foolish, and wasn't entirely sure what he was apologizing for. Though when he saw how red-eyed and miserable Taiki looked, he did feel really guilty. It's not like he tried to upset the people around him, he just wasn't very good at getting his point across in a way that didn't sound accusatory or uncaring.

Luckily Taiki, it turned out, was extremely friendly and easy to get along with. Keiki wasn't sure if this could be called a brotherly relationship, since no philosopher had seen fit to provide guidelines for poor socially inept generations to come on what that entailed exactly, but he felt extremely fond of Taiki. He really wished he could answer his questions or, better yet, teach him how to transform and actually get him able to subdue a shirei. The day of Keiki's departure arrived much too soon, but he really had no choice but to leave. He was sure Jokaku must have already secluded herself in the Inner Palace weaving away at her loom and ignoring governing completely.

And sure enough, when he returned there was the queen, barricaded in the Inner Palace. He literally dragged her to the Morning Conference, where she sat like a nervous-faced doll on the throne, immobile and silent while the ministers waged their power games literally under her very nose. Keiki was handed such a huge stack of paperwork that he was forced to delegate some of it to other people. He didn't know what became of the delegated work, but suspected someone was probably using it to exploit someone else somewhere in Kei. But there was simply too much work to do by himself, and flimsy floodgates with most of their budget embezzled are better than no floodgates at all.

He put into practice all the friendliness Taiki had taught him, which for Keiki meant he paid attention to Jokaku's mood and tried to be less blunt when she was about to start crying and when (on the very rare occasion) she did something moderately right he would smile and praise her for it. He had no idea, of course, just how disastrous this would be.

He might be getting better at reading people's emotions, but he had no experience with people in love. On Mt. Hou there were only the nyosen, and in Kinpa Palace everyone except the queen was beneath him, and thus Keiki had never been exposed to romance. He didn't realize until she started to go mad that his queen's love for him went beyond fondness of her subordinate, and by then it was too late.

The first symptom of something going wrong came soon after his visit to Tai. He was just listening to the report of a junior official who had diligently taken notes for him on the proceedings during his absence, and his stress lines softened slightly in relief at how detailed they were.

Seeing this, Jokaku stomped right up to where the female retainer was kneeling, her usual uneasy kindly expression replaced with a twisted anger. "And what do you mean by this?"

Keiki and the retainer looked at her in complete confusion. After all, this was an unremarkable standard proceeding that could in no way be interpreted poorly, yet the queen's dark expression could have been aimed at the most unrepentant serial killer of the realm.

"Are you trying to grovel for favour, to worm your way into Keiki's heart by taking advantage of his compassion towards the people? Did you think by flaunting your competence he would pay attention to you? Don't get conceited!"

The poor official looked completely taken aback, and Keiki hastily dismissed her and tried to reason with his queen.

"Don't tell me she was just doing her assignment, that slut was blatantly trying to seduce you!" A sudden suspicion clouded her stormy countenance. "Or perhaps you had given it to her in the first place to encourage her, because you also wished to be closer?"

Why would she think that? In the first place, Keiki wasn't even human. Secondly, the woman was of a much lower rank and he didn't even know what her name was. And thirdly, even assuming he was interesting in inter-species relationships and that particular woman, where on earth was he supposed to find time to waste on romance!

After much reassuring the queen let the matter go, and Keiki put the whole incident off as a stressed out queen having a bad day. But then it kept reoccurring. Where the idea that he was interested in a romantic relationship with his subordinates originated from he couldn't even begin to fathom, but to pacify his increasingly upset and unreasonable queen Keiki was forced to avoid contact with all other women. For a time this improved the situation and life at Kinpa Palace was… not peaceful, not even moderately so. Bearable? Yes, life at Kinpa Palace was bearable for a time, so long as he was sure to avoid female retainers like they were covered in blood.

And then one day, as he was trying to coax Jokaku into looking over some papers on faulty bridge construction in Wa Province, a messenger ran in red faced and out of breath.

The messenger bowed low. "Your Majesty, Taiho, begging your pardon but an Imperial Rescript just arrived from Tai requires your attention directly."

International correspondences were very rare even between strong allies, and were mostly either personal letters or official communiqués between the officials of the respective communications division. Only in dire times were official rescripts sent directly to the ruler and Taiho. Keiki's brow creased in worry as his chest was filled with a dark foreboding.

The messenger trembled in trepidation as he unrolled the scroll and shakily read out the proclamation of the death of the king of Tai.

"There must be some mistake!" He snatched the scroll from the man's startled hands and examined it carefully, turning it over and unraveling it the full way. It said exactly what the man had read, and nothing more. "Why hasn't the phoenix reported it, if this is true? What about Tai Taiho?"

The man stuttered, not recovered from the shock of the Taiho losing his composure. "There… that is… um… this is all we received. There is no other news, and nothing states the disposition of the Tai Taiho."

Keiki exploded, stunning both his queen and the messenger more so than if an actual explosion had spontaneously occurred. "Then why are you just stand around here? Go send someone this minute to confirm what has occurred and the disposition of Tai Taiho!"

The cracked tone in his last words caused the queen looked at him sharply. Taking in his distraught, stricken face, usually so emotionless, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do no such thing!"

Keiki couldn't believe his ears. Further angered, he turned to Jokaku. "Why not!"

The queen's spiteful voice was shrill; as if aware of the unreasonable words it was spewing but unable to hold them in. "Because I said so! I am the queen, so you have to! Send no one to Tai. If the meanest official is sent to Tai against my orders, I'll have him ripped limb from limb and then strewn over the roadside for the birds to pick at!"

"Your Majesty!"

Jokaku was screaming so loudly she was doubled over and almost crying from the effort. "What about me! I'm right here, but you never, never look at me! It's your fault! Why, why do you only care about Tai Taiho! Taiki this, Taiki that, Taiki the wonderful, amazing, perfect! If darling Taiki is in trouble, of course we need to drop everything for him! Your job is to help _me_, not the kirin of Tai! And I forbid you to ever bring up that name again! You never look at me, just that dratted brat far away. Good riddance to him!"

This was the final battering that broke the floodgates, and everything after burst forth like a raging flood. The people were suffering, ministers were corrupt, Taiki was missing, and his once gentle if uncertain queen had morphed into an insane tyrant. Keiki had once earnestly longed for her to take up governing and wield her power, yet when she did so it was to banish all other women from the realm and execute any who remained.

When he fell ill with shitsudou, Keiki was relieved. Finally, finally he could die. Let the next Keiki fix this, he had tried his best and in a mere six years he had only made it a thousand times worse! He was ready to just give up, wither away, and die. He couldn't take anymore tragedies.

When, delirious with remorse and illness, he felt a violent, searing stab through his heart he was sure Death had at last come to claim him. He waited without knowing what for, and it seemed to him that if this was death then it was not much different than life. He was still ill, still bedridden, only now his chest ached as if someone had thrust a red hot poker through his heart and then yanked it out, twisting it so as to make it as painful as possible. Worse, he felt as if he were no longer whole, like the mysterious assailant had cruelly ripped his being in half as if it were nothing more than a piece of paper, and then thrown half of him into the furnace to shrivel up and crumble into nothing more than fine flecks of ash, leaving him as a bleeding half without bothering to staunch the amputation wound.

But even this pain didn't kill him.

Although Jokaku's abdication faded the disfigured blemishes from his face, the lacerations of his heart could not be healed so easily. His physical strength returning, he wearily trudged his weak body throughout Kei, intent on fulfilling his duty to the people to seek out their next ruler. Reality was a bitter pill to swallow, and the hope that had buoyed him during his first search was replaced with resigned determination. He would find the ruler, and if they didn't want to rule, well too bad! Being considerate had completely backfired on him the first time.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch3:

The ouki was so distant he could barely feel it. It was only a tiny sliver of warmth emitting from far across the Kyokai at the easternmost shore of Kei, the easternmost of all the kingdoms. Emitting from beyond the eastern end of the world, in Hourai.

From deep within in a buried part of him that almost had a sense of humour came the thought, _the ministers are going to kill me._

Keiki wondered what he'd done to so displeased Tentei he felt it necessary to punish him so. Not only had he seen fit to give him a mistrusted female ruler, but the queen – his dear, foolish queen – had none of the necessary qualities of leadership. _Keiki_ had been able to predict she would have an unstable, short reign, so why? Why did it have to be her! She was discriminated against before she even sat on the throne solely for her gender and previous social status, and had been of an insecure disposition incapable of rising above the forces pushing her down. As if selecting a sure misfit to the throne once wasn't enough, now his master was a taika who had never set foot in Kei in their whole life. Surely Heaven wouldn't be vindictive enough to also give him another insecure, inexperienced female ruler to boot?

_Please, please, I won't ask for much. I don't care what the ruler is like, I don't need someone especially wise or honourable or strong, just please! Please don't let it be another queen._

Keiki sent this prayer to Heaven fervently, no matter that he was certain his will was the least of Tentei's concerns in picking a new ruler. It certainly had done no good the first time around.

Since he had no idea what awaited him in Hourai he did research on it beforehand, scanning through records of shoku in the last century. His heart sunk when he read that the only shoku in the last hundred years that had carried off any ranka eastward had struck sixteen years ago. Well wasn't that just perfect! His master was barely more than a child.

_The queen of Kyou ascended the throne at age 12 and has reigned peacefully for 90 years. The queen of Kyou ascended the throne at age 12 and has reigned peacefully for 90 years. The queen of…_

It became a mantra to him. Just because the ruler was young didn't _necessarily _mean he or she would be a bad ruler. Just because the ruler was a taika didn't _necessarily_ mean the same. One only had to look to En for proof.

Nonetheless, Keiki was full of misgivings. In the first place even less was written about Hourai than he had imagined (what _do_ ancient philosophers spend all their time writing?) so Keiki was forced to steel himself and send a formal communiqué to Gen'ei Palace requesting an audience with En Taiho via the local administration office. He frequented the office the next day, to ensure they had actually sent off his letter (Keiki understood very well how bureaucracy actually works as opposed to how officials assure you it works), before retiring to his lodgings to await a reply. He unearthed a brittle yellow document from a stack of others and, making himself comfortable in his chair, began to scan it for any information on Hourai that may be useful.

"Yo! You wanted me?" Keiki jerked spasmatically and he spun, heart racing in his ears, to the open window of the inn he was staying at incognito. How in the world Enki had got his letter so fast, how he traced him back to the inn, and _why_ he imagined it would be a good idea to sneak in through his window would remain mysteries to Keiki forever.

Keiki, despite feeling very peevish towards the younger-looking man, laid out the nature of his predicament and asked for advice from Enki. Enki almost looked serious, and Keiki felt honoured by it. It was, after all, a rather rare occurance.

"Well, going _there_ won't cause much disturbance in the world, but coming _back_ with someone in tote is gonna cause a huge shoku. Make sure you get him or her to accept the Mandate before trying to drag 'em over; otherwise you'll end up killing your monarch and cause massive destruction to boot. And when you meet your ruler you are going to have to be very clear, ok? The people over _there_ don't know about _here_, not to mention there are no kings and kirins over _there_, so you're going to have to explain _everything_, understand?"

"Yes."

Enki didn't look convinced. "_Everything_. Like you are talking to a very young child. No, more than if you were talking to a very young child. Especially what you in particular would tell to a very young child. Do NOT do to your ruler what you did to Taiki a couple years back! Remember, they come from the same place, so if you give another crappy explanation your ruler is going to be just as confused as Taiki was."

Keiki felt he hardly needed the reminder, the incident was still sore for him, all the more so due to his anxiety over Taiki's doubtful well-being. "I will be certain to give an adequate explanation! Is there any additional advice that you are willing to impart to me?"

"Well, since you told me I'll be sure to inform Shoryuu there's gonna be a big shoku somewhere sometime soon, but you might want to give the people in Kou a bit of heads up. I mean, the shoku is probably gonna happen in one of the eastern countries, so if they get hit it'd be best if they knew in advance. And when you are in Hourai…"

Enki gave him a long list of things about Hourai that made his head spin, and in the end wrote out two characters on a scrap of paper which he then handed to Keiki. Keiki looked at the two characters, 高校, is confusion.

"High school?"

Enki nodded. "It's an educational institution the people in Hourai send their kids to until they're eighteen. Since you said the shoku occurred sixteen years ago, your ruler should be in one of those six days a week, eight-thirty to three-thirty minimum. Longer if they're in clubs, which is statistically likely."

_That is extremely convenient._ Keiki bowed diplomatically, "I thank you very much for the information you have graciously bestowed upon me."

Before departing for Hourai, he did as Enki suggested and sought an audience with the king of Kou. It was only fair to warn him, and if the shoku did cause damage to Kou they would doubtlessly be called upon to cover repair expenses, so it might be best to get it all out of the way beforehand, since afterwards Kei was sure to be very hectic for a while. This audience was carried out through the proper diplomatic streams, and Keiki was taken to a guest pavilion in the Imperial Palace of Kou. Though he considered this much improvement on En Taiho's conduct, the interview went worse than he could possibly have imagined.

He had expected King Kou to be angry that his land might be hit with a shoku, but he hadn't expected the man to be enraged at the ruler themself. Keiki wondered if this was a very, very, _very_ poor joke.

"… Don't you think being born that way is filthy! Do you really intend to sit such a disgusting person, born from a woman's stomach, on the throne of Kei? I will not tolerate such a disgrace governing next to my kingdom! The…"

Keiki stood up. He had warned him fairly, and if the man was going to be completely unreasonable then he had better things to do, namely search out his ruler. "I will take my leave. Excuse me."

"Guards!"

Keiki was shocked but, as a dozen armed men burst into the room, was forced to either snap out of it or get arrested. He chose the former and, calling out a shirei, jumped out the window and flew off. He felt this was very much something that En Taiho would have done, and though the thought displeased him he had had no other choice. When he was attacked mid-flight by swarms of flying youma all aimed directly for him, he was assured he had reacted rightly, however improperly.

Keiki escaped his pursuers to the Kyokai where he created a small shoku that took him out of their reach, into a concrete square-designed city he had never seen the like of before.

Why the people decided to stack all their buildings one on top of each other he couldn't even begin to fathom, though perhaps it was due to there not being any monarch or kirin to properly govern the country. To make things even more confusing, not only did everyone had black hair and black eyes, but little children often looked like carbon copies of one another and the adults they were with, presumably their parents. And the young ones all dressed exactly the same, giving Keiki the odd sensation of walking past the same person over and over again. Keiki was starting to think maybe King Kou had a kernel of truth in all his rubbish; it would indeed be a misfortune if the ruler he was seeking tried to change Kei into a place like this. Still, he continued his search, desperate to just find the person and go back to where people weren't all conformed into being identical.

He followed the ouki and showed the two hastily scribbled characters to people on the streets, trying to locate 'high school'. To his dismay 'high school' was plural and scattered all over the place, so he revised his question from "Do you know where High School is?" to "Do you know where the high schools in that direction are?" Appearing to people was strenuous, as his form had become difficult to sustain when he passed the end of the world and it took a great effort of will to physically appear to someone. Yet he finally was standing outside a high school that ouki seeped out of.

The characters on the gate dismayed him as, even with the strange Hourai writing style, they clearly indicated this was a _girls_ school. He knew exactly where he needed to go in the school, but finding the right hallways to take him there was another matter. Finally he arrived at the right location, and materialized himself. Holding the shape was a matter of ease now he was within the strengthening presence of his ruler.

Through the doorway the back of a young girl's auburn head was visible, with the thick braid falling past inwardly hunched shoulders down to her lap, where her hands clutching one another tightly as though seeking something firm to hold on to. He had seen the same posture six years ago, so he wasn't surprised that the ouki radiated from her unimpressive figure.

The girl bowed demurely to the stern middle-aged man seated across from her, and started to rise just as Keiki raised his voice, "I have found you."

He bowed low at the surprised girl's feet in acknowledgement and then, as she was fervently denying knowing him to the gawking man, Keiki felt the unmistakable presence of a youma approaching. En Taiho had lectured him on how youma didn't exist in Hourai, so he shouldn't show the Royal Kei his shirei until he or she got over his or her initial shock. If youma didn't exist in Hourai, and youma were nearby, then they could only be from his own world. And few youma are capable of crossing the Kyokai, so either it was a monstrosity such as a toutetsu or a shirei sent by the power of a kirin.

He sprang to his feet, "We must go."

The girl cast an unspoken, pleading look of desperation at the older man, who squared his shoulders. "Young man, you are trespassing on school grounds. I must ask you to leave this minute."

Keiki judged this man was probably a lesser official, going by his faint air of authority and his numerous underlings staring at the scene. As the Saiho of the Kingdom of Kei he far outranked whatever position this man held, and he wasn't going to be impeded by some foreign bureaucracy. "This is a matter which does not pertain to you."

Turning to the young girl who could only be described as utterly bewildered, he said, "I shall explain to you later. But we must leave now."

The girl opened her mouth to articulate a question, but was interrupted by one of Keiki's shirei.

"Taiho, the enemy is at the gates."

Keiki hardly needed telling who the enemy was. In the twelve kingdoms, there was only one king prejudiced enough to force his kirin to send shirei across the Kyokai.

He had to take his queen to safety, but she was not making it easy and before he could convince her to follow him the window shattered, raining down glass on everyone his shirei hadn't bothered to defend. This, of course, only further cemented in Keiki's mind the idea that he needed to drag his queen off to safety. And by drag, he literally had to _drag_ her while she struggled and desperately tried to free herself from his grip.

As if the queen herself resisting weren't enough, the minor official blocked his path and started barking out orders. At him. _Him_. The Kirin of Kei! The girl took the opportunity to increase her efforts to break free, and somewhere nearby there were enemies approaching.

Keiki dropped the arm of the stubborn girl and fell to his knees. If they were about to be attacked, it would be better for her to be immortal. "I shall never part from thee, nor disobey thy decrees. My fealty I hereby pledge in covenant to thee."

The jaw of the girl above him hung even wider in dumbstruck amazement than her predecessor's had, and her wide eyes held only confusion. No enlightenment appeared on her face, because this girl had no idea what those words from a person with gold hair entailed. He didn't have time to explain them to her. "Permit it."

_Huh?_ was the response conveyed on her face. There wasn't time to elaborate. "If your life is precious to you, say 'I permit it'!"

"I permit it?" it was more a question than an acceptance, but Heaven is extremely dogmatic. It was enough.

And in the nick of time.

There was a massive torrent of flying glass, and everyone except the two immortals was injured, drenching the area in blood. Keiki pulling his shocked and terrified queen up the stairs, away from all the innocent bystanders, and on to the roof of the square building where a kochou awaited them.

The queen stared in shocked disbelief at the monster bird attacking her, rigidly locked in place even as she was about to be killed. He had to call out his shirei to defend her, and force Suiguutou in her hands.

She threw it away.

_Fie upon her!_ Kirin were not meant for battles, and as if the animal screams renting the air and rising smell of blood weren't enough, now he had a tantrum-throwing queen to deal with. And a youma that was still trying to kill her.

"Juusaku, Hankyo. I leave her to your care."

The reddish haired queen was _not_ happy to suddenly be picked up and flown through the air in the arms of a giant baboon. When he caught up to them she had swooned to ground, drenched in sweat and sobbing wildly with terror.

He waited until her sobbing calmed, stressed beyond any normal level of meaning associated with the word and twitching at each noise, and then grabbed her again and began to drag her off. She didn't like that at all, and his shirei alerted him again to the approach of the kochou before he managed to force her more than three feet from where she had been crouching.

He once again thrust the sword into her reluctant arms. "If you love life at all then use this."

"I keep telling you, I don't know how!"

"No one else can."

"That doesn't change anything!"

To Keiki, it was simple. If she didn't know how to use a sword, then he just had to lend her Jouyuu. Unfortunately, she didn't hold that same view and thrashed and cried the whole time Jouyuu was entering her. Even when he had completely possessed her, she didn't calm down in the least.

But he was right in his judgement, and after the loathsome battle and horrid slaying of the kochou, surely she must agree it was a necessity?

Apparently not.

"I'm going home. Those monsters, they're all yours. You can have them. And take this Jouyuu thing out of me!"

Keiki was the one who wanted to go home. He didn't even want to _think_ how sick he was going to be from all the blood that surrounded him, as well as the scent of murder that arose from his queen. His queen that he had wandered for a long time in a strange land to fetch.

If force was necessary to escort her to her rightful place, then force he would use!

As the queen was being pinned by Kaiko to the back of Hankyo, who was about to leap into the air, she sent him one last parting looking that clearly said, _you dirty kidnapper!_

Keiki didn't have the luxury of time to acknowledge her feelings. Hopefully, once they were across the Kyokai and he got around to explaining everything to her she would forgive him. In the meantime, he needed to get away from all this blood.

He waited until they were a long way from shore before opening a shoku. He was unsure exactly how much damage bringing royalty across the Kyokai caused, but the further they were from habitation the better. He flew just out of sight, and more importantly smelling range, behind her. When the attack came all he remembered were his shirei and Kourin's shirei fighting and the thick smell of blood encompassing all, and then everything went dark.

When he woke up his horn was sealed, and he was a prisoner.

Keiki was completely unsurprised at the tear streaked face of Kourin. He knew _exactly_ how she felt. She was watching her chosen monarch do something so foolish, so tyrannical that there would definitely be divine punishment for it. She knew she would soon be dead of shitsudou, and the people would suffer, even though the first signs of the illness had not yet appeared. The bleak despair of watching his avowed master fall lingered bitterly in Keiki.

An oumu parrot perched on her shoulders as they waited in the woods, waited to attack the cart his new master had been taken prisoner on. Why the king had instructed her to attack the cart he didn't know. Surely he could have just had her executed when she arrived in the city? Or perhaps he was worried that she would convince the officials she was the Royal Kei, and be granted release or sanctuary.

He needn't have worried about that; Keiki hadn't gotten the opportunity to say one word about Kei. Or her being a queen. Come to think of it, did she even know what a queen was? En Taiho had said monarchs no longer existed in that world, and when they had it was always the king's son who succeeded as the next king. Had female monarchs ever existed? Would she be able to work everything out for herself based solely on the name Keiki, his hurried parting words about her being his master, and the title Taiho? Did she even know what Taiho signified? He doubted it; she certainly hadn't seemed the least enlightened when his shirei addressed him as such.

Just as Keiki was regretting neglecting to explain everything to her the second he first laid eyes on her he sensed her coming, and closed his eyes. He couldn't watch.

"Keiki-san! Keiki-san!"

The cart rolled by and her heart-wrenching cries faded into the distance, echoing tauntingly in his ears long afterwards. Kourin's shirei were chasing the fading cart, but to Keiki's relief the queen managed to flee, though she left behind the Monkey scabbard. He watched it disappear before his eyes, knowing it had transformed and gone off to pursue and torment its master. Their mutual master, who was already wandering around foreign, youma infested mountains without any directions.

His heart heavy with despair, Keiki listened to King Kou and unwillingly acknowledged he was surely right about his queen's fate.

She was just sixteen. She had no idea what was happening to her, or why. She would wander in confusion until she died alone in the wilderness, or was seized and executed. No one would mourn the strange red headed girl from beyond the sea, and she would be forgotten in less than a week.

It was the fate he had dragged her off to, the one she had resisted so desperately as if foreseeing this wretched end.

His legs were bound up and he was literally shipped off to Kei in a box. It was pried open by Jokaku's dark haired sister, the bold saleswoman who had once tried to suck him into buying an overpriced sauce pan. Now she was planning to take over the country.

He couldn't believe the province lords. He knew they were incompetent and very likely corrupt, but he was _chained_! Did they think those were some kind of fashion statement? Did they believe he enjoyed loafing around the middle of a battle ground in kirin form, half dead from the scent of death and blood?

Keiki's heart was full of black despair. Why, oh why couldn't he have just died of shitsudou? How cruel to spare him and then allow him to live through this torment! His queen dead, his country laid to waste, his ministers treacherous or killed, a _giou_ desecrating the throne, and the new queen lost beyond hope in the mountains of Kou, with all the innumerable shirei of Kourin out for her blood and her wanted poster in every town. If he had just died then she at least would still be safe in Hourai, happily living out her incomprehensible life in that home that she had begged to be allowed to return to.

Instead he was chained in the dungeons of a provincial castle, unlikely to ever see his own home again. The agonizing blow to his heart was not forthwith in coming, and Keiki spent every waking moment cringed against the uncertainty of when it might strike him. Would he wait here, as alone and abandoned as she, until she died or was killed without once realizing she was destined to be royalty? And then what? How was he to seek out the next ruler if he remained chained in the dungeons? Would the province lords eventually come to his aid when they realized Joei was a giou, or would they continue to ignore him and use his absence to further exploit the people? Probably the latter, though even if the former was miraculously brought about, how would they remove Kourin's enchantment on his horn?

There was nothing he could do, and no one to help him. Whether waking or sleeping he felt the pitch-black helplessness of living a never ending nightmare. He couldn't even tell what was a dream and what was reality anymore, since the pitch-blackness of his cell afforded him nothing and the faint rankness of blood seeping from above in the castle and below in the city permeated both.

Crouched in complete blackness, from the east he came the warmth of approaching ouki like a rising sun, but whether dream or reality he couldn't tell. When the fiery red haired child of sixteen entered into his cell he was certain it must be a dream after all. She was arrayed in magnificently armour reeking thickly of spilt blood, and there was a confidence in her brisk step and authority in her raised face that had definitely not been present in their brief meeting. This was the queen as he wanted her to be, he was sure.

"Keiki…" the steady, gentle female voice sounded different than he remembered, not at all like the hysterical child he had… forcibly escorted. Without any direction from his brain, his body melded itself into a bow towards her. She reached out and stroked his mane, and the warmth of her hands convinced him this was not a dream after all. He closed his eyes in complete bliss.

Once his queen freed him from his chains and enchantment she took him to the En Imperial Army, where they retreated back across the border and sought refuge in Gen'ei Palace. He needed lots of rest to recover from his captivity, and when he recovered enough to meet with one of his hosts, Enki greeted him with a scowl.

"Did you listen to a word I said to you? What part of 'if you give another crappy explanation your ruler is going to be just as confused as Taiki was' did you not understand?"

Keiki felt this was hardly a fair accusation. "We were being attacked!"

"And you couldn't find thirty seconds to tell her, 'You're the Queen of Kei Kingdom, don't stick around Kou Kingdom, and I'm a kirin'?! You do realize how difficult it was for us to convince her to accept the throne, since she had only just found out she was a queen, right?"

Keiki honestly hadn't thought about that, so he remained silent. Enki rolled his eyes. "What a troublesome little brother! Whatever. All's well that ends well, though this isn't really over yet. In any case, Youko survived."

"Who is Youko?"

Enki stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "Your queen! Nakajima Youko? Please tell me you _did _ask what her name was?"

"… I did not."

"Unbelievable!"

Keiki had no choice but to stare glumly at the sardonic boy. The Taiho of the greatest of the northern kingdoms being immature and irresponsible rubbed him the wrong way, but why was it only when he made mistakes the En Taiho revealed he had a serious side!

"Well, now you know, though you being you knowing her name probably isn't gonna make much difference. Just… try to talk to her, ok? She's got a lot on her plate right now, and you're the only person she knows in Kei. Shoryuu and I gave her all the basics, so now you get the fun job of explaining all the really complicated stuff to her."

Enki shuddered. "Believe me, it's not easy. Five hundred years ago I got stuck having to explain _everything_ to Shoryuu, and he kept thinking I was trying to pull his leg. Took years before he would believe me that kids grow on trees here. Good luck, 'cuz you'll need it."

Keiki sighed. It was something he felt he did as often as he drew breath. Randomly, he wondered if one day his body would get its oxygen intake from sighing rather than breathing. The foreseeable future certainly looked like it might make that a reality.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch4:

The ministers were every bit as unhappy with having a teenage taika queen as he'd predicted. The queen was every bit as nervous about suddenly having to make decisions about places she'd never heard of and put her stamp of approval on papers she couldn't read as he'd expected. The beginning of Sekiraku was ominously similar to the beginning of Yosei, from the sighs and smirks of the ministers to the first indications of nervous breakdown in the queen.

The only way it differed to Keiki was that it was even worse. The ministers who'd seized control during the neglect of the late Yo-Ou now had an iron grip on the court, and Youko had no idea who was to be trusted and who wasn't. She was even more ignorant than Jokaku had been, and thus even more nervous to take up governing. She started delegating tasks to ministers, which was something rulers were supposed to do. Assuming, of course, they had trustworthy ministers, which Kei didn't.

The Province Lord of Baku, Koukan, lay heavily on Kei's heart. By the end he was the only one who remained opposed to the giou, and so was rumoured to have designs for claiming the throne for himself by those who had given up right away. Keiki tried to tell his queen that that wasn't the case, but somehow one of the few things she had drilled into her head about this world was Kirin Compassion, that kirin always oppose any and all harsh sentences regardless of how justified it is. Keiki cursed King En for explaining _that_ so well to her. It made it very difficult for Keiki to convince her that Koukan was innocent.

What also made it difficult for Keiki was that he needed to spend his afternoons attending to the governing of Ei Province, and whenever he rushed from there to where he felt the ouki he would see the Chousai Seikyou striding by, smirking and looking satisfied. He was positive the man was purposefully showing up whenever he wasn't around, and he could actually see Youko being wrapped around the man's little finger.

Then there was the assassination plot by the ministry officially charged with her well-being and her three personal advisors. He rushed to see her as soon as he caught wind of it, and Youko blew up in his face.

Exactly like Jokaku had done six years ago when the stress of ruling had begun to make her crack.

During the council the next morning when the assassination was being hotly argued over her posture was getting ever more rigid and she looked increasingly tense. When she opened her mouth Keiki expected her to ask for clarification on something someone said, or give her assent to the last suggestion made.

She did neither. She demoted Seikyou to Minister of Heaven, and reassigned the three leaders of the Ministries of Spring, Fall, and Earth to the Sankou. Then, to his horror, she assigned him as temporary Chousai and when the ministers voice their outrage her only response was,

"Consider it an Imperial Rescript!"

And then she just waltzed out of the throne room, bringing the council to an abrupt end.

Keiki was getting a lot of exercise from all the rushing around he was doing these days, but when Youko said she was going to En his pounding heart almost failed.

"Your Majesty!"

_Not again!_ He wouldn't, no _couldn't_ go through another ruler who cast aside governing to retire to a more peaceful, relaxed location, leaving him to sort through the mess left behind. Keiki cast about desperately for words that would change her mind, and as usual his non-existent verbal skills failed him.

"Tell that to the ministers. I'm thinking about going to go live in the city for a while."

Keiki's heart was not much assuaged by that. En or a city in Kei, wasn't she still abandoning her duty? But Youko pressed on with her explanation, and though he didn't really understand it, what he did know very well was just how little she understood. It was hardly comforting to suddenly be dumped with trying to single-handedly uphold the entire government _again_, but Youko's words filled him with an almost forgotten sense of hope. She was still just as unsuitable as she had been before, but at least she recognized this and used it as a foundation for self-improvement, not a bottomless pit of self-pity. In a cinch, that was the different between Youko and Jokaku.

It was the difference that let him agree to do just what he hated so much the first time it had been thrust on him: attempt to single-handedly manage the government from a position that didn't get much authority beyond customary courtesy.

And the second time around, it was a million times more difficult.

The next morning Keiki stood to the right of the glaringly vacant throne facing the bowing ministers, the back of his neck slick with sweat even as his unperturbed expression hid his internal distress. The ministers were said nothing, and the morning conference was notable only in that _nothing_ of any significance was brought up.

This was a very bad sign. Matters of importance are always present, now more than usual, and if they weren't discussing them in the conference that only meant they were being discussed and dealt with elsewhere.

Keiki tried in vain to introduce the present issues for discussion, but it was as if before each council all the ministers had reached a consensus and the matter no longer was open for any discussion. Like they had held their own conference and then just attended to the one he was in charge of out of formality and to inform him of their conclusions, thus completely excluding Keiki from all the decision-making.

Although technically he was Chousai the fact that he was a kirin made the appointment ridiculous and open to concealed mockery, and the effectively empty position of Chousai meant Seikyou, as Taisai, was still the most influential person at court. Power is bestowed upon one by the acknowledgement of others, not something dictated by an Imperial Rescript. In effect, Seikyou was still Chousai and Keiki was still the only the Saiho without any acting authority. He could give orders, but they would be completely ignored. And he lacked the component of human character necessary to punish those who disobeyed. It was a situation as impossible as trying to hold a tide on the shore with your bare hands, which is why kirin were never meant to rule a country alone.

The hope was beginning to fade from Keiki's mind, replaced with doubt. She was being diligent, only studying, he told himself. No need to get worried. It's not like last time. This time 'And then I'll come back later' actually meant she was planning to come back. Right?

And if she doesn't? If she decides she is happier where she is?

He didn't want to consider it.

But he couldn't stop his mind from morbidly turning it over and over and over and over and...

Keiki was just sighing deeply, for the fourth time in ten minutes, while flipping through a document extracted from a teeming stack of others when his shadow spoke to him.

"_Taiho._"

Keiki looked down in surprise; normally his shirei were as quiet as if absent, and furthermore it was Hankyo, who should be absent, that now addressed him. "What is it?"

"_I come bearing news from Her Majesty_."

Keiki's heart twisted in worry. This couldn't be good.

And it wasn't. A child purposely run over by the carriage of a local governor. She wanted to take action, but Keiki had _more_ than enough experience dealing with corruption to know how it would go. He went to see her personally, since his also had _more_ than enough experience in communication to realize anything he attempted to explain not in person ended up five times worse than it did in person. He also had a gigantic stack of paperwork he needed her stamp on.

Only when he stepped out on the road warmed with the sun-warm ouki did he realize he had another reason that had compelled him to come. He had been pining for her, the way a dog will for its owner who has gone on holiday, and would have seized the flimsiest excuse to rush out and see her face. And make sure she was coming back.

The scratchy robes he wore rubbed against him unpleasantly, and his smothered head begged for release and free flowing hair. When he asked for 'Chuu Youshi' at the entrance the young girl cleaning there gave him an appraising look, as if he were a fruit she were checking for bruises and debating whether it was fit to serve to her guests, before grinning broadly at him and going strangely doey eyed.

"I'll go tell her that you're here… what's your name?"

"…" He could hardly tell her his name was Keiki, "You may inform her that her servant is waiting for her."

At the word _servant_ the girl looked positively giddy, and she walked away smiling and giggling softly while clasping her hands together in excitement. He wondered if she was feeling well.

When the queen appeared before him, in the private room the girl had nicely arranged for them even if she had been making a rather strange expression and talking with strange undertones in her voice, Youko looked extraordinarily exasperated. "Don't say strange things like _servant_, people will get the wrong idea!"

Keiki was completely lost. He _was_ her servant, why couldn't he say so? Though now he thought about it, someone staying in a rike having a servant was not normal. He was so used to servants being everywhere that he forgot that most people didn't have them. But why would saying he was her servant give people the wrong idea?

Youko sighed and rolled her eyes at him, as if he had done something extremely foolish, and Keiki couldn't help but feel caught in a misstep. It didn't help that he had no idea what he had done that was so foolish.

"So, why did you come all the way here?"

Thank goodness, business! Formality was Keiki's strong point, the opposite left him floating around uncertainly. He produced the stack of papers for her with relish, and to his satisfaction she started to look over them without hesitation. Jokaku would have burst into tears and thrown them at his head, sobbing that she just wanted to live normally. …Not that he was worried. No, he definitely hadn't been worried that Youko would be lured away from her bickering, murderous retainers by the peace of simple life. Not at all.

Which is why he did _not_ feel profound relief when she brought up government matters of her own accord. Because he hadn't been worried in the firstplace. The unknotting in his chest and his unconstricting lungs were irrelevant.

Youko opened a scroll and asked him with something concealed in her voice. "Do you have to return right away?"

"A quick return would be problematic. I have supposedly traveled to En."

She grinned at him as if in on an inside joke, and asked in a voice with too much feigned nonchalance, "So, you like to take a trip to Takuhou?"

On the bright side her determination to get to the bottom of the tyrannical governor assured him she was indeed interested in governing (not that he had been kept awake at night worrying otherwise). On the down side, he was terrified her blundering inquiries would kill her.

Meikaku was rich with the smell of decay and greed. His instincts screamed at him to leave, but it wasn't possible. His queen was here, and the city being in this state was due to Gahou manipulating his previous queen by way of bribing her with a gift of a peaceful, serene little hamlet where she could play the ordinary woman. Keiki knew his duty.

That didn't stop him from being repulsed and angry when his blood smeared shirei came to him telling him to leave, and later his queen greeted him drenched in blood. Apparently she had stopped an execution by way of Hankyo, rescued a girl who had thrown a rock at the executioners, then fought off all the guards chasing after them.

He almost wished she were not _quite_ so enthusiastic about governing. At least not so reckless about it.

And then Takuhou was even worse than Meikaku. He couldn't even enter the city, it smelled so strongly of blood. Keiki had had no idea things were this bad. The only good thing to say about it was that at least now they knew about it, and someone in there had told Youko that Koukan was a good governor. Exactly what he had not been able to persuade her.

Keiki was still somewhat horrified, somewhat relieved when he stopped dead in his tracks outside of the rike.

The smell of murder overflowed from within.

The biggest problem with being a kirin is that, in the face of injured people, your compassionate heart will war with your repelled senses, and just helping someone who is injured is enough to confine you to bed for a long time.

After carrying the almost dead child to the doctors at Kinpa Palace, Keiki needed almost as much tending as he.

When he woke up Hankyo informed him, "_Her Majesty expresses her gratitude for your actions, and requests you take all due care of the boy. She has gone to search out the missing superintendent and apprehend those responsible, but assures you she will not do anything reckless, so requests you to not worry._"

Keiki felt this was an impossible request.

Bedridden, not able to exercise the least authority in court, and his queen off on a mad quest to seek out murderers. How could he _not_ worry?

Especially when the next time she sent news it was to say, there's a rebellion going on, and I'm joining it as one of the ringleader, and we're going to try to oust a governor in a fortified castle with trained armies at his command with nothing more than a couple hundred peasants armed with pitchforks and scrounged up weapons. But don't worry. And can I borrow your shirei?

What on earth was this girl's definition of 'I won't be reckless'?!

A tiny part of Keiki thought wistfully of days when his queens just sat in the palace and misgoverned.

Pretty soon he was hearing reports about the rebellion, and as the ministers argued hotly over what was to be done about it Keiki blessed his lucky stars for the slowness of bureaucracy and power games. Shoukou could not expect any help from the capital for the time being. But neither could he manage to send the least aid to Her Majesty.

The next time he heard from her the only thing in her message was, _drop everything and get over here _NOW_!_

And when, flying through the air in kirin form as fast as he could, he arrived near where his shirei had assure he she was situated he almost dropped out of the air from the scent of blood. A _battlefield!_ She summoned him, a kirin, to a _battlefield_! And worse, glancing down he could see quite clearly that the flags flying against the fort she was holed up in held the insignias of the Imperial Army. Keiki had no idea when they had been dispatched, or who had the audacity to do so, but there they were.

_An empress who joins rebels to fight her own troops_. Had something like this ever happened before?

The generals of the Imperial Army wore the ashen faces of the executed when they saw the enraged queen fly out from the fortress they were about to attack. Especially since they had no right to even leave the palace grounds without her personal permission. Keiki wondered where the fiery girl on his back had come from, because it certainly couldn't be the same person who had once thrown away the sword he'd given her and exclaimed, "Why me!"

Now she roared at the trembling general of the Left, "Tell me you intend to attack Takuhou on Seikyou's orders and I'll have you all branded traitors!"

The whole situation was pacified in about three minutes, and Keiki wondered what on earth she had needed him for. Did she call him here just to fly her over to yell at the army? Was he here for _effect_, so when she yelled at them she looked impressive doing it ten feet off the ground astride the back of a kirin?

Well, it had worked.

She stayed in Takuhou for a little bit after that cleaning up the mess, and then returned to court to turn it upside down and shake out all the loose pieces.

The Imperial Court of the Kingdom of Kei was still far from uncorrupt, but the person who could lead it there one day had finally taken a firm hold on the steering wheel. And he stood to the side on lookout, scanning the horizon for approaching dangers.


End file.
